THE Mayor of Wivenhoe fears car parking charges will be controversial with residents when they are introduced later this month.

The move has been instigated by the town council because it wants to deter commuters from parking for free at two of its car parks.

Councillors want more tourists to use them instead.

The car parks, Cooks Yard A, and Cooks Yard B, will each have meters installed and between 6am and 6pm, will charge up to £4 for motorists parking for more than six hours.

They are owned by Wivenhoe Town Council but it has asked the North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) to manage them.

The charges come into effect from December 30.

Andrea Vaughan, Wivenhoe’s Mayor, said: “I am sure the residents will hate it because when the yellow lines were put down a couple of months ago, that didn’t go down well.

“Our fear was that if we didn’t put meters in people will park second cars there because when the Cooks housing development was built, the standard parking regulations were lower than they are now so some people only have one parking space.”

The car parks, which have a total of 26 spaces, are part of Cooks housing development, in Walter Radcliffe Way, which was recently completed.

Town councillor Kevin Read, chairman of the council’s Cooks development working group, said the council would get a share of the revenue generated from the car parks.

He said money would help with their upkeep.

Mr Read added: “It is a great asset to Wivenhoe because it is right beside the river and the idea is to get people to come and park and walk down the Wivenhoe Trail.

“The residents of the housing development all have off-road parking, but as part of the development there was always going to be a pay and display car park.

“We have had to set the charges so it doesn’t get used as an overspill for commuters as well and block access for the visitors.”

Parking for up to 30 minutes will be free.

The overnight charge from 6pm to 6am will be £2.

  •  TRADITIONAL parking meters at a Colchester town centre car park will be scrapped in favour of a high-tech payment scheme.

From December 30, motorists will only be able use their mobile phones to pay for parking at Napier Road South car park, which currently has a pay-and-display facility.

They text in their car registration, where they are parked and for how long.

The information goes to a central computer which can be checked by parking attendants and the ticket price is automatically billed to their credit card.

The move to a cashless system could eventually see traditional ticket machines phased out, preventing them from being raided by crooks.